Favoritism and God

What does “being favored by God” mean? Does He loves one person more than another? This article discusses God’s favor in our lives.

Favoritism

“Mom always loved you best.” The Smothers’ Brothers said this during every show back in the late sixties. It always brought huge laughs from the audience.

If you have siblings, you might have felt like that at one time or another. We always think Mom or Dad show favoritism to one of the other kids in our family when we aren’t getting what we want.

My brother and sister always said I was the favored one when we were growing up. I’ve often joked that I truly was. I was the “typical” oldest child: first grandchild, a rule-follower who didn’t like to cause trouble or get in trouble, and by nature I was a peace-maker in the family. So, maybe I was the “favorite” after all. 🙂

Do You Show Favoritism?

When you were a child, maybe you were closer to your mother than your father. She was the one you always ran to when you were hurt or had problems. Or, maybe you were closer to your father. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t love both of them. You just loved them in different ways.

When my children were growing up, we tried hard to not show favoritism to one or the other of our two boys. But I can still remember there were many times when one of them would say, “That’s not fair!” It can be hard sometimes to make everything fair . . . and to be honest, life isn’t always fair, is it? But we try so hard to be.

As our boys were growing up, I often felt closer to one of the boys than the other. When that happened, it was sometimes based on what he was going through at the time. The very next week, it might be the other son who needed my compassion and an extra dose of love. That doesn’t mean I loved one more than the other, it just meant one of them needed me more at that time.

When that happens, and it will with all mothers AND fathers, we need to be aware of the time we are spending with the one in need and make the effort to include the other and spend some special time with him.

I know, you’re thinking you love all of your kids just the same. You treat them all exactly the same. Sure you do. 🙂

I love both of my boys. I would give my life for either of them and I know my husband feels the same way. Were we always right? Did we sometimes make mistakes raising our boys? Who knows and sometimes. But we did the best we could. I think all parents feel that way.

This is a crazy way to introduce the subject of God and favoritism, right?

What IS Favoritism?

Here’s the thing. As human beings, we think of favoritism as giving unfair preferential treatment to one person at the expense of another. And sometimes, we just do.

God loves us all just the same. I believe that. There’s nothing I could do or say that would make God love me more or less than He already does. After all, He sent His Son to die because of my sin (and yours) so I (we) can spend eternity in heaven with Him.

Nothing He does is unfair.

God’s Favoritism

God has all power and could do anything He wants, but He often uses His children (us) to do His work here on earth. He uses us to reach others and to be His hands and feet. He calls us to help others. We can call the people God chooses to use “favored” because they have an opportunity to share in building God’s kingdom.

Being favored by God means He is willing to use you for His purposes. Wouldn’t that be awesome, though, for God to use us All. The. Time?

Yes and No.

His favor may mean something different from what you think. It doesn’t mean a life of unbroken happiness. It certainly doesn’t mean all your dreams will come true.

God’s favor

You may not want to hear this . . . but there is usually a tremendous price paid by those who are highly favored by God. In the Bible, sometimes those who were highly favored suffered great hardship.

Let’s take Paul as an example. He reached many thousands for Christ during his lifetime. His words to the churches have been preserved in the New Testament for all churches and millions and millions of people. But his life was tough. Beatings, being stoned, imprisoned for much of his ministry – not what we would call “favor”, is it?

But the reward! Was it worth it to Paul? Yes, a thousand times YES! His reward was GREAT in heaven.

On the flip side, there were many in the Bible who God favored who weren’t persecuted. Zechariah and Elizabeth, for example. She was barren and wanted a child for most of her adult life . . . but God allowed her to become pregnant when she was very old. Long after she should have been able to, she gave birth to a son.

Sarah and Abraham went through similar circumstances. In both cases, they were favored and the outcome was nothing short of amazing.

Sooooo . . . don’t be afraid to say “yes” if God wants to use you to reach or help others. You might be the ONLY one He wants to use right now in this moment. Are you willing to be a person God can use here on earth?

Next Steps

In my next post, we’re going to talk about Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was “highly favored” by God. We will dig a little deeper into what “highly favored” meant for her.

What about you? Were you the “favorite” when you were growing up?

Leave a comment below and let me know how you feel about this “favored” concept.